Nicola Sturgeon

First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, has announced her intention to resign from her position as First Minister and leader of the Scottish National ...

Sturgeon is the first woman to serve as First Minister of Scotland, and her resignation marks the end of an era for Scottish politics. During her time as First Minister, Sturgeon has been a strong voice for Scottish independence and has worked to strengthen Scotland's economy and social services. Sturgeon has served in these roles for over eight years and was previously Deputy First Minister for the best part of eight years before that.

Ms. Sturgeon, a longtime champion of Scottish independence, has been first minister since 2014.

Ms. “She regards herself as a woman,” a visibly frustrated Ms. Sturgeon and Ms. Sturgeon later announced that Ms. During her resignation speech on Wednesday, Ms. That prompted a crisis in Britain’s power-sharing system, known as devolution, with Ms. In their resignation speeches, Ms. “To talk of tomorrow as ‘Freedom Day’ is not sensible,” Ms. A former finance secretary, Ms. In her surprise announcement, Ms. Even from the sidelines of Scottish politics, Ms. “Being your first minister has been the privilege of my life,” Ms.

Nicola Sturgeon resigned as Scottish first minister on Wednesday, saying her dominance over her party and the country was no longer the asset it once was in ...

The surprise resignation of Scotland's First Minister raises questions about the future of the SNP as well as Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party.

But Sturgeon made clear that while she’s stepped down from the leadership, she’ll remain a lawmaker and champion of the issues closest to her, including independence. The Labour Party, rather than the Conservatives, would be the likely beneficiary of any electoral weakening of the SNP, though hopes of 24 seats at the next election to help put Keir Starmer in Downing Street is still a big ask for a party that was all but wiped out after dominating Scottish politics from the mid-1960s until 2010. The following year, the SNP won a record number of seats in the elections for Holyrood , Scotland’s Parliament. In the 2015 general election, the SNP took 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland. Sturgeon seemed to relish the fight with the British government, which blocked the bill, but found herself struggling to defend her position after transgender prisoner Isla Bryson, who was convicted of raping two women while still a man, had been housed in an all-female prison before being moved. With voters rating health care as one of their top concerns, even the SNP’s own supporters are increasingly likely to doubt the party’s management.

Scotland's first minister will remain in office until successor is elected, but said 'time is right to make way for someone else.'

“This is just a completely wild situation,” they said ahead of the conference. “I’ve literally done this in one capacity or another for all of my life,” she said. She has also been under fire over the housing of a convicted rapist, who changed their gender, in a women’s prison. But the SNP leader has been embroiled in a row with the British government in recent weeks, after it blocked a bill aimed at reforming Scotland’s gender self-declaration laws. “However, since my very first moments in the job, I have believed that part of serving well would be to know almost instinctively when the time is right to make way for someone else. Sturgeon pointed out that she had been a member of the Scottish Parliament since the age of 29, and in government since the age of 37.

So began the inevitable parsing of her resignation speech, itself praised for its honesty and humility – particularly in contrast to recent UK prime ministerial ...

Those who know Sturgeon well highlight her comments on Wednesday on the polarisation of Scottish politics, and its “brutal” nature – especially for women. Jeane Freeman, whose friendship with Sturgeon was cemented when she worked as her health secretary during the pandemic, told the Guardian: “It’s inevitable that going through something as relentless and all-consuming takes its toll, as I know personally. That Sturgeon was ready to leave the role she has occupied since she seamlessly replaced Alex Salmond in 2014 was no secret. MP Amy Callaghan toppled the former Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson in 2019 and Sturgeon’s delighted fist-pumping reaction, caught unintentionally on camera, went viral at the time. While she leaves the independence question in deadlock, she insisted her decision to step down was anchored in what was right “for the country, for my party and for the independence cause I have devoted my life to”. I will always be a feminist.” But Sturgeon is a woman who likes to craft her own narrative. [harassment complaints made against the former first minister](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/aug/30/alex-salmond-inquiry-upheld-five-sexual-harassment-complaints), constant calls for her to quit, and ultimately her being [cleared](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/22/nicola-sturgeon-cleared-of-knowingly-breaching-ministerial-code) of misleading parliament. In her resignation speech she warmly thanked “my SNP family”, the party she joined as a serious-minded 16-year-old in the 1980s, when support for independence was marginal and membership was not about forging a career in politics. She The superlatives flooded in from supporters and opponents alike, describing Scotland’s first female first minister, who has led her party to political dominance for nearly a decade, as “formidable”, “unparalleled”, “tireless”. [Nicola Sturgeon](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/nicola-sturgeon) in the hours before she publicly announced her resignation as Scotland’s first minister, it was the timing and not the fact of her departure that came as the almighty shock.

The departure makes her the second high-profile female leader in the world to announce a resignation in recent weeks. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ...

- "I could go on for another few months, six months, a year maybe, but I know as time passed, I would have less and less energy to give to the job," Sturgeon said. 7, citing burnout as one of the impetuses for the decision. - In her announcement, made from her official residence in Edinburgh, Sturgeon stressed that her decision was not made due to "short-term issues" but rather that she had been "wrestling" with the move for several weeks.

Scottish politics has, for years now, had an outsized voice in the wider UK political conversation. The reason is simple: the prospect of Scottish ...

To put that in perspective, the last time they won a general election, in 2005, they won 41 seats in Scotland. How will the collective instincts of some of those Scots most committed to the cause of independence express themselves in selecting the next figurehead for the cause, and how will they take that argument to the persuadable but not convinced? A necessary, but not sufficient component in that is continuing to win elections and continuing to prove that Scottish public opinion remains, at the very least, split down the middle on the question of independence. And the SNP became and remain a significant player on the UK political stage: the third political party at Westminster and one with the potential to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament. And that - to state the obvious - matters massively in Scotland, but also everywhere else in the UK too. With the Scottish National Party running the Scottish government and holding the vast majority of Scottish seats at Westminster, the question of Scotland's constitutional future has remained live.

Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is resigning. Throughout her rule, she has been famed as a savvy political operator — yet her strategy has ...

All those determined to halt the miserable decline of Scottish society, must repudiate the myth of her enlightened leadership. She leaves office with her own approval ratings dipping, and with support for independence on the slide. Loyal politicians jumped on transatlantic anti-Russia sentiment after the election of Donald Trump and warned of Russian meddling in Scottish affairs, and specifically in the independence movement. A forthcoming emergency SNP conference to debate Sturgeon’s plan for a “de facto” referendum, which would see the party stand on an independence ticket without any other manifesto at the next general election, looked set to break the long-standing tradition of stage-managed conferences with predetermined outcomes. She ignored protests outside the door of her official residence in Edinburgh — but did fly to London to take part in the British establishment “People’s Vote” movement to overturn the 2016 Brexit referendum. This sent a signal: there was to be no challenge to her leadership, especially from the Left of the independence movement. The years between 2016 and the COVID-19 pandemic saw dozens of major demonstrations all over Scotland, many in the tens of thousands, demanding the right to self-determination against an intransigent Westminster. Defeat proved a boon for the SNP, which experienced a surge in members and voters, clearing a path for Sturgeon’s dramatic rise to power. But even at her peak in late 2014, Sturgeon’s deep ambiguity to the independence movement was on show. The 2008 financial crisis and the rise of David Cameron’s austerian Tories completed the effect, and the SNP won a majority of seats at the 2011 Scottish elections, mandating an independence referendum. Sturgeon’s ascent to the peak of Scottish politics in 2014 was driven by that year’s independence movement. Her exit, after months of mounting difficulties, threatens the complacency of Scottish institutions at a time of hardship for millions, as the economy shrinks and working-class incomes tumble.

When Alex Salmond quit after the independence referendum, there was little doubt about who would succeed him. Nicola Sturgeon was the obvious candidate and ...

The delay will allow the new leader a chance to help shape that debate. They did not get much warning that Nicola Sturgeon was about to quit and building a campaign team and assessing potential support within the party takes time. That is a widely perceived as an obstacle to a high profile MP like Joanna Cherry running but she has already ruled herself out. That's what Alex Salmond did in 2004 when the party was in opposition. Allowing a little space for reflection on Nicola Sturgeon's decision and her contribution to Scottish politics. The expectation is there will be one this time but so far there are no official candidates.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's most powerful political figure, announced her intention to resign as first minister, the head of the country's devolved ...

It faces elections to the devolved Scottish Parliament in a few months. [farewell speech](https://twitter.com/bbcscotlandnews/status/1625819813720252416) yesterday, Sturgeon described running out of energy. [announced](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/02/15/world/nicola-sturgeon-scotland-resigns) her intention to resign as first minister, the head of the country’s devolved administration. The drug death rate in Scotland is around [3.7 times](https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/statistics/drug-related-deaths/20/drug-related-deaths-20-annex-g.pdf) the rate in the U.K. A recent bid to force the issue ended with [defeat](https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/scottish-independence-after-supreme-court-defeat-can-sturgeon-hold-new-2022-11-23/) in the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, which found that a new referendum run only under Scotland’s devolved powers would be unconstitutional. Sturgeon’s party at Westminster had already seen a split when some of its members joined a new party led by Sturgeon’s immediate predecessor, Alex Salmond, who had become her hated rival in the intervening years. By this time, the public and the SNP were mutinous. The argument that most directly led to Sturgeon’s downfall was a social issue: self-identification and the legal changing of gender. [Europe](https://theferret.scot/ffs-explains-scottish-drug-deaths-compare-uk-eu/) as a whole. Sturgeon was a supreme communicator, and her public relations team—run out of the first minister’s official residence, Bute House—effectively outmuscled all Scottish opposition. Scotland is a less economically productive part of the U.K. Although the party was keen to dub local, regional, and national elections as “

The leader and independence campaigner cited the "intensity" and "brutality" of modern politics as factors in her resignation.

Sturgeon said she wanted to spend more time in her role as an aunt, and noted the way in which her job took over every area of her life, especially in recent years. “And when that time came, to have the courage to do so, even if many across the country, and in my party, might feel it too soon. We give all that we can, for as long as we can, and then it’s time. “Since the very first moment in the job, I have believed that part of serving well would be to know, almost instinctively, when the time is right to make way for someone else,” she said at a news conference. And then play hundreds of other games in 4K with up to 120 frames per second. There was a time, not long ago, when the world roster of leaders suddenly looked much more gender-balanced than it ever had before, with Adern powering ahead, 37-year-old Sanna Marin taking over Finland’s leadership in 2019, several other woman running Nordic countries, and Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan, just to name a few.

Scotland's independence movement needs a new leader — and a new plan. The resignation of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon leaves the decades-long campaign by ...

It needs a campaigning politician who can move the dial on the independence debate. Sturgeon took power in the wake of that defeat and tried to forge a path to a second vote. Her departure brought praise from Nancy Pelosi — who hailed her “strong, values-driven leadership” — and a jibe from Donald Trump, who bid “Good riddance to failed woke extremist Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland!” “The SNP needs more than just a competent first minister. Some in the party strongly support it, while others see it as a distraction from the party’s main goal: independence. Instead she unsuccessfully challenged the British government at the Supreme Court for the right to hold a new referendum. Sturgeon exits without fulfilling her dream of leading Scotland to independence, but leaves a large, and contested, legacy. as a whole backed leaving the European Union in a 2016 referendum, but voters in Scotland strongly favored remaining. He said that momentum could weaken even more if the opposition Labour Party wins the next U.K. Brexit looked like it might give her a chance: The U.K. in a 2014 referendum that was billed as a once-in-a-generation decision. [break the independence logjam](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/scotlands-leader-aims-for-independence-referendum-push-in-2023).

Editorial: Scotland's first minister has been a dominant political figure. But her resignation does not mean that independence is dead.

[independence referendum strategy](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/16/snp-nicola-sturgeon-stephen-flynn-independence-plan-rethink) – the heart of what she and her party stand for – has run out of road. Her party is being investigated by police over financial transparency issues, including a £107,000 [loan](https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23303488.snp-loan-sturgeons-husband-led-multiple-rule-breaches/) from her husband. [Nicola Sturgeon’s](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/nicola-sturgeon) resignation is a massive political event. The result was a huge swing to the SNP. David Cameron misread the signs after the referendum in 2014. She would not have survived for 16 years at the summit of politics without both sets of abilities. More immediately, her domestic policies are also facing a concatenation of criticism. Ms Sturgeon has not resigned simply because she has had enough. The warning is best summed up in 10 plain words spoken by Scotland’s first minister in her surprise [announcement](https://www.snp.org/nicola-sturgeon-to-the-people-of-scotland-thank-you-from-the-bottom-of-my-heart/) in Edinburgh on Wednesday: “I am a human being as well as a politician.” If we are not careful, politics risks becoming the preserve of the wealthy, the corrupt, the brutal and the brazen. What Ms Sturgeon said on Wednesday is concerning and shaming. This is particularly true of women politicians, who still have to cope with intolerable attentions and pressures that men are often spared.